Photographic album



p 8, 1959 w. I. CALLEN 2,902,996

PHOTOGRAPHIC ALBUM Filed March 29, 1957 INVENTOR. Mzmc: 614L467) BY 42L, 4 21.. y ,4, "'95 United States Patent PHOTOGRAPHIC ALBUM Wallace I. Callen, Jersey City, NJ.

Application March 29, 1957, Serial No. 649,359

2 Claims. (Cl. 129-20) This invention relates to an album, and more particularly to the type of album which is conventionally employed as a photographic album, although it will be understood as the invention proceeds that my invention is not to be limited thereto since it is capable of use for all types of books which are used to support and display items composed of thin fiat sheet material; e.g. photographs, stamps, clippings, theater tickets, invitations, announcements, greetings cards and like mementos.

' It heretofore has been customary in the fabrication and use of albums, scrapbooks and the like either to construct the album specially so as to facilitate mounting of items therein or else to throw the user on his own resources. In the lattcr case, the user ordinarily fastened items to the pages, as with glue or cement or a tape having a pressure sensitive adhesive coating, or with auxiliary mounting means as, for example, mounting tabs,

mounting hinges or mounting corners. Where the manufacturer incorporated the mounting means in the book itself such means usually constituted mounting tabs or flaps or cut-outs or other suitable devices for engaging the corners of the items to be mounted. The public views all of these expedients with disfavor, inasmuch as they require the user to exert too much effort. Accordingly the sale of scrapbooks, albums and the like is comparatively restricted and usually is made to people in the first flush of an enthusiasm or hobby. As soon as interest wanes even the slight amount of work required for mounting items causes the book to fall into disuse.

It is an object of my invention to provide a book which overcomes these drawbacks.

More particularly, it is an object of my invention to provide a book of the character described in which the mounting means is an integral part of the book and is so constructed as actually to require no elfort at all on the part of the user.

It is another object of my invention to provide a book of the character described in which the items mounted are securely held in place and yet no portion thereof is obstructed from view.

It is another object of my invention to provide a book of the character described in which the items are attractively mounted and displayed regardless of lack of skill on the part of the user.

It is another object or" my invention to provide a book of the character described in which the user finds it particularly easy to record the date and circumstances of each item mounted.

It is another object of my invention to provide a book of the character described which can closely dispose sundry items to be mounted and yet so hold them as not to create an appearance of over-crowding.

It is another object of my invention to provide a book of the character described in which individual items may be moved away from other items in the book for close scrutiny without being removed from the page on which they are mounted.

Patented Sept. 8, 1959 Other objects of my invention in part will be obvious and in part will be pointed out hereinafter.

My invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combinations of elements, and arrangements of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter described, and of which the scope of application will be indicated in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings, in which are shown various possible embodiments of my invention,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a book constructed in accordance with the present invention, the same being shown with the front cover turned back;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of one of the leafs of said book;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken substantially along the line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional view taken substantially along the line 44 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary perspective view showing the manner in which one of the flat transparent flexible covering sheaths is taken on or off a wing.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, the reference numeral 1i} denotes a book embodying my invention. In several respects the book is conventional. For instance, it employs a standard front cover 12 and rear cover 14, each of these consisting, as is usual, of a broad thick stiff exteriorly ornamented panel 16 hingedly connected to a narrow thick stiff panel 18. The two narrow panels 18 are secured to one another by posts 26 extending through openings in said panels. Each post includes two selectively couplable elements, e.g. a screw and a headed tapped tube, so that, in effect, the book is what might be referred to as a loose leaf book inasmuch as by opening up the posts the covers can be detached from one another and additional sheets or leaves added to or taken oil of the posts.

In addition to the covers, the book conventionally includes a large number of sheets 22 which are adapted to be interchangeably inserted between the narrow panels 18 and held in place on and by the posts. For economys sake the sheets are made of paper, a somewhat heavy and good grade of paper being employed of the some type as is ordinarily used in albums and scrap books. Each sheet includes two leaves 23, 24 interconnected by a vertical fold 25. At the fold a stiffening strip 26 is inserted between the two leaves thereby facilitating mounting of the sheet between the narrow panels 18 and farther facilitating threading on the posts 20.

In accordance with my invention each leaf is subdivided by slots 28 extending transversely away from the binding of the book toward the side margin into two or more Wings 3! Each said wing thus constituted accordingly has an outside edge 3%, an upper edge 30b and a lower edge 36 0 which are free and an inner edge 30d which is connected to the binding of the book. It thereby will be appreciated that although a leaf consists of several wings, i.e., two or more wings, each of the wings can be moved, as for closer inspection of items mounted thereon, independently of other wings of the same leaf.

Each of the wings 39 is shaped to include along its upper edge 3% and also along its lower edge 30c a shallow recess 32 extending from near its outside edge 30a to near its inner edge 30d, said recesses being of uniform depth and the bottoms of the recesses on each wing being substantially parallel to one another.

Moreover, there is provided in connection with each one of the wings a covering sheath 34 of transparent durable clear flexible material such as a water-white synthetic plastic, examples thereof being cellulose acetate, cellulose acetate butyrate, polyamide resins, and polyester resins. The sheath actually consists of a front panel 34a and a rear panel 34b connected to one another by parallel folds 34c, 34d of small width so that the two panels are immediately adjacent one another. Thus when one panel is disposed in contact with one face of the wing the other panel will touch the reverse face of the wing. The length of each sheath is slightly less than the length of the re cesses 32 of the wing with which it is affiliated and the width of each sheath is slightly in excess of the distance between the bottoms of the recesses on the afliliated wing, whereby when asheath is in position it will substantially fully cover-its wing but it cannot slip off the same accidentally since it makes too snug a fit with the free end 36 of-the wing when slid over the same. Indeed, one of the reasons for the provisions of the recesses 32 is to insure captive mounting of each sheath on its wing. Moreover, by thus limiting the outward movement of each sheath each wing is provided with what might be termed a head 36 that is left uncovered by the sheath and on which a user canindite pertinent information concerning any items that-he mounts on a wing.

A sheath is attached to a wing by bowing the wing so as to reduce its width and by slipping the sheath over the head of a wing so held. The sheath is removedrin a reverse fashion. However, it is contemplated that the sheaths shall be mounted by the manufacture and that they shall remain permanently in position during normal employment and the user, accordingly, need not concern himself with them.

To mount an item on a wing it simply is necessary for the user to slip the item, eg a photograph, stamp, clipping or memento in the space between one'face of the wing and the associated panel of the sheath. These two, since'they have touching surfaces, will retain the item in place by frictional constraint. Thus, it is apparent that an item can be secured in the book in absolute mini mum of timeand with an absolute minimum of efiort.

To increase the ease with which the wing can be flexed relative to that portion of the leaf by means of which the wing is secured to the loose leaf binding I may provide-a series of parallel crease lines 38 running transversely across the inner end of each wing. From the foregoing it will be appreciated that I have provided a book which achieves the various objects of my invention and is well adapted to meetthe conditions of practical use.

As various possible embodiments might be made of my invention and as various changes might be made in the embodiment above set forth, it is to be understood thatall matter herein described or shown in the accompanying drawings is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. In a leaf for a scrapbook, album or the like, an elongated wing of flexible sheet material having a binding side, an outer edge, an elongated top edge and an elongated bottom edge, saidwing including shallow elongated registered recesses running along its elongated top and bottom edges from near its outer edge to a short distance from its binding side, said recesses being parallel to one another, and a transparent flexible flat covering sheath of a synthetic plastic telescoped over said wing and leaving the outer end of the .Wing uncovered, the length of the sheath being almost as long as said recesses whereby to cover saidwing between said recesses, said sheath including apair ct -parallel spacedfolds which define a fixed width for the sheath and which are located in said recesses, said fixed width being in excess of the width of the wing at the recesses and less than the width of the wing at the outer end thereof whereby to captively hold the sheath on the wing.

2. A leaf for a scrapbook, album or the like of flexible sheet material constituting a binding portion running along one side of the leaf, said leaf having parallel slots transversely extending from the opposite side of the leaf inwardly toward the binding portion and subdividing the leaf into several elongated wings each including a binding side, an outer edge, an elongated top edge and an elongated bottom edge, each said wing further including shallow elongated registered recesses running along its elongated top and bottom edges from near its outer edge to a short distance from its binding side, the recesses 'of each said wing being parallel to one another and each said wing having in association therewith a transparent flexible flat covering sheath of a synthetic plastic telescoped over said wing and leaving the outer end of the wing uncovered, the length of each sheath being almost as long as that of the recesses in the wing with which it is associated whereby to cover said wing between said recesses, each said sheath including a pair of parallel spaced folds which define a fixed width for the sheath and which are located in said recesses, said fixed width-being in excess of the width of the associated wing'at-the recesses and less than the width of the wing at the outer end thereof whereby to captively hold each sheath-on its associated wing.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 329,307 Gerhard Oct. 27, 1885 582,591 Salsberg May 11, 1897 1,839,564 gLascari Jan. 5, 1932 FOREIGN PATENTS 478,848 Italy Mar. 5, 1953 1,059,252 France Nov. 10, 1953 

